{105}✔️

A/N: sorryyy I meant to update earlier but I'm sick as a bitch so I've been knocked out all day 🖤

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**Monday, April 30th**

Dahlia's POV

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"Hey, Dahlia."

I turned, narrowed my eyes at her, and grabbed her throat before slamming her into the locker. "I thought I told you not to talk to me or my girl anymore. Fuck do you want?"

She held her hands up in defense and stared at me, wide-eyed. "I—I didn't wanna come over here, but Mrs. East told me to tell you to meet her after the last bell!"

I narrowed my eyes even further, not letting go of her. "And why would Mrs. East ask you of all people to tell me that?" I tilted my head.

"Because I was walking right by her and—and she's seen us around each other in fourth period a few times so maybe she thinks we're friends? I—I don't know!"

"You better fucking not be trying to find excuses to talk to me, Luna. I meant what I said. I will fuck you up if you try me, bitch. Next time somebody tells you to tell me something, you make sure that they know it'll be the last thing you get to say if you do."

I let her go and backed away from her slightly, giving her the opportunity to slip past me and jog away. I glared at the few people who were staring at me after the scene and they went on about their business.

I opened my locker and started doing what I was supposed to be doing before that bitch started talking to me; Cleaning it out.

Tomorrow is May the first. That means that tomorrow is the start of the last month of school. My last month of Junior year. I'm so beyond fucking excited and ready for it. I'm ready to be done with this stupid year and I'm ready to be done with this stupid school and all the stupid people in it for at least three months.

And then comes senior year. And then high school is officially over. God, am I ready.

I mean, I'm scared, but I'm totally ready!

"Hey, you're Dahlia right?"

I looked to the left which is where the voice came from and smiled at the girl who was standing there. I've never seen her before. I think I would've remembered if I had. She's got tan skin, long, dark brown straight hair, and hazel eyes. Her eyes are different, though. She's kinda got a David Bowie type of situation going on. One of her pupils is way more dilated than the other, and it seems to be a permanent thing. She's probably about 5'6, and she's wearing a pretty cool outfit.

"Yeah! Do I know you?" I questioned politely.

"No, but I saw your tits on Facebook that one time. Just thought I'd say hi."

My cheeks flushed and I let out an awkward laugh as I looked away from her and went back to emptying out my locker. "You're great at introductions."

"Thanks." She chuckled. "I wasn't so sure that I should talk to you. You know, cause that girl just said 'hey, Dahlia' and you threatened her life and all." She nodded her head toward the direction Luna had run off in and I blushed even harder.

"Well, me and that girl have a bad history. So..." I drifted off awkwardly. She nodded her head. "Well, I just wanted to say hi. I don't know literally anyone here and you looked friendly enough. I figured since I saw your tits on Facebook—"

"As you keep reminding me."

"—I should at least try to make a friend and say hi. So hi."

"Hi." I laughed. "You're new here, then?"

"Yeah, today's my first day."

"Isn't it a bit late for you to be transferring schools? I mean, it's literally gonna be May tomorrow. Last month of school."

She shrugged. "It was an emergency transfer. I was expelled from my last school for fighting and shit but I need to be in school, working on my grades. If I don't get them up I could fail the grade. I live with my aunt and she's got three kids of her own so she doesn't have time to home school me or anything. So, here I am."

"Oh," I nodded, once again drifting off awkwardly. God, I wish I was good at having conversations. "Ugh—So, are you from here?" I tried.

"Well, no, I'm from New York, but I've been living here for about six years now."

"New York? Wow, that's cool! Always wanted to go there. I guess I should've known you were from there cause of that accent." I laughed. "What's it like?"

"Good food and lots of crime." She shrugged.

I closed my locker after putting all the stuff that was inside of it into my bag and then turned to her. "Sounds great." I grinned. "I'm about...Three minutes late to my next class, so I guess I better go." I sighed.

"Sure thing. Sorry for holding you up."

"Oh, no! It's no problem," I smiled. "I know it's gotta be tough starting a new school, especially so close to the end of the year and everything. Everyone's already got their cliques and shit." I rolled my eyes.

"You're right about that. I asked this one girl where one of my classes was, and six of her little Barbie friends spent ten minutes calling me an idiot for it." She laughed as I sent her an apologetic look. "Don't worry about it. Pretty sure none of those girls could even spell the word 'idiot'."

"Well, let me see your schedule!" I smiled. She handed it to me and I skimmed over it quickly, nodding my head. "We have Health class together, which is the one I should be heading to, so I'll show you to that one. We've got the same lunch period too! And...Math too."

"Dope." She smiled. "You're a lot nicer than I thought!"

I snickered and shook my head. "Yeah, I don't normally slam people into lockers, I promise."

***

"That new girl is really hot." Caden grinned as he pointed his fork toward Billie's table. I think Billie has befriended her because she's sitting on top of the table with her and Bea.

"Stop being a pig before I tell Ken," I warned him before taking a bite of my pineapple. "She's really nice from what I can tell, and if Billie is talking to her she must be. Billie doesn't really make it her business to talk to anyone she doesn't already know."

"Our little Bilboa is growing up. She's finally making friends of her own! I thought she was over the whole 'making friends' thing after she found Bea." Cadence placed her hand over her chest dramatically.

I rolled my eyes and reached across the table to steal one of her slices of watermelon. "Yeah, and guess what!" I smirked, leaning forward so I could be closer to her. She did the same and Caden leaned in as well. "I think I might've just found Julia a roommate."

"What? What do you mean?" Caden asked before shoving some of his pizza into his mouth.

"We were talking earlier and she mentioned that she's looking for a roommate so that she can move out of her house because her aunt has three kids to take care of and she's just ready to get out and have her independence and everything. So, I mentioned Julia and, of course, I had to mention the fact that she was pregnant and about to have a baby and shit, but she didn't seem to mind! Said she's used to the noise and that listening to a screaming baby all night would be an upgrade from living with three screaming kids." I giggled.

"Well, that's awesome! Have you asked Julia about it yet?" Hudson asked. I nodded. "I texted her as soon as I could and she wants to talk to her about it. She's pretty desperate to find someone. Her parents are helping her buy a house and everything's about to be finalized in, like, two weeks. So, she's really gotta find someone. Her standards are pretty low. She said she'll live with anyone as long as they're not a hard criminal." I shrugged.

"Is that girl a hard criminal?" Cadence smirked, tilting her head.

"Well, she did mention being expelled from her last school for fighting, but I'm not gonna judge her for that. Billie was too and she's not a criminal."

"Didn't she cut Kai?" Cadence jokingly tapped her chin as she thought about it before letting out a laugh. "I'm kidding! Billie's great and that girl seems pretty cool too...You never mentioned her name, by the way."

"Oh, it's...um..." I thought about it for a moment before slouching a little. "Damn, I don't think she told me."

"You're trying to get Julia to live with someone you don't even know the name of?" Hudson smirked and I threw one of Caden's carrot sticks at him.

"Hey, I'm just trying to help Julia out!" I defended myself. "I'll figure out her name later."

"Why didn't you tell Denny about her instead of Julia? I mean, they both need a roommate, but that's your brother!" Caden thumped me on the forehead and I winced.

"Denny already has a roommate. He just doesn't know it yet."

"Explain." Cadence demanded.

"Me. I'm gonna be his roommate!" I smiled.

"Are you forgetting that you're broke?"

"I'm not broke!" I pouted. "I did some calculating and it seems like as long as I continue to sell stuff on Etsy pretty steadily, that alone could cover the costs of being Denny's roommate. I usually make a couple hundred a week from the stuff I sell! But, of course, I also work with Josephine and that's three hundred a week right there. I can afford to live with him, and I don't mind living with a crying baby! I mean, I guess it isn't ideal, but it doesn't seem like he's gonna be able to find another roommate anytime soon and he's really been stressing about it."

"That's sweet, but I doubt he'd let you move in with him." Hudson ruffled my hair. "The whole point of moving out is to get away from your family."

"I don't think he's gonna have much of a choice," I shrugged. "Plus, it would be an honor to live with me!"

"Sure, Jan." Caden mumbled.

"Shut up," I rolled my eyes. "Anyway, I've gotta talk to him about it and try to convince him, which probably won't be all that easy, but it'll be a hell of a lot easier than trying to convince dad."

"Yikes. I don't see that going well. Moving out before senior year?" Cadence sucked in a breath.

"He won't like it, but I think he'll understand! It's for Denny and plus, I'm already eighteen. A lot of kids move out when they're eighteen! Plus, I'm thinking that it might not be so bad. Denny really has his mind set on getting the house that's four houses down from ours. Dad is way more likely to let me move out if I'm just moving four houses down!"

"Didn't you tell me that the guy that was living there died? Isn't that the reason it's on sale now?" Hudson raised his brows.

"Well, yeah, and that's the great thing about it! Death in the house means that the price gets lower! It's a really nice house and it's a hell of a lot cheaper than anything else Denny's been looking at. That's why he wants it so bad!" I bounced in my seat excitedly and then stopped as I looked around at my friend's judgmental faces. "I mean...But it's sad that he passed away and all." I added lowly.

"Well, I hope this all works out for you guys. I think it's a good idea. At least he'll already know everything he needs to about his roommate if you guys do move in together." Cadence laughed.

"I don't like this," Caden shook his head. "If you move out of your house and into that one then that means we won't be next door neighbors anymore. We'll be...Four houses down neighbors and that's nowhere near as cool as being next door neighbors."

"Aw, come on, buddy! It wouldn't be that big of a change." I patted his shoulder softly.

"We've been next door neighbors since we were in diapers!" He shook his head.

"We've...Only known each other since we were eight." I reminded him.

"But we've been neighbors since we were in diapers." He argued. "You can't move out, Dahlia. I forbid it."

"You forbid it?" I snorted.

"Yes, I do!" He huffed. "I mean, what happens after you move out, huh? You're gonna forget about us, your new next-door neighbors will become your new best friends, and then one day you'll decide to move even farther away when you decide it's time to betray them too! I've given you nine years of my life, Dahlia, and I won't let you fuck up what we have!"

"Okay, first of all, ew—" I wiped some ranch off of my cheek as I glared at him. He really should've swallowed all his food before he started with that little rant. "Second of all, I'm not gonna forget about you guys if I move four houses down."

"Yeah, you need to chill, bro." Cadence shook her head at him. "If you're acting like this right now then I'd hate to see how you act when we all go to different colleges and shit."

"D-Different—" He shook his head quickly and gulped. "I—I thought we'd all just agree on one college and then g-go there!"

"It's possible, I guess, but not all that likely." I shrugged.

"But..." He bit his lip and put his head down on the table after moving his tray. "You wake up expecting to have a good day and then, bam! Existential crisis." He muttered to himself.

***

"What do you mean we have to do a freaking play before the year is over? Tomorrow is literally the first of May, we can't prepare for a play and perform it in just a month!" I screeched. "I didn't even know drama club was even still a thing! I don't remember us having one meeting this whole year!"

Mrs. East shrugged her shoulders and cringed. "I know, I know. I didn't even know I was still in charge of drama club! I mean, I signed up for it, but I thought that Mr. Sandow took over it—I don't know how this happened, but it did! Principal Myers said that if we don't do at least one play this year, drama club and drama class is officially over, and we can't have that! The kids who come here next year deserve to be able to have a drama class, Dahlia!"

"Why are you even telling me this?! I'm just in the club, it's not like I'm the president or anything!" I huffed.

She gave me a look. "You are the president."

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" I waved my finger in a zig-zag. "I'm president of key club, Vice President of Science club and creative writing club, and editor of art guild! And I'm doing a pretty crappy job of being involved with those clubs so I don't need to be doing a crappy job as president of drama club too!" I shouted, beginning to pace in front of her.

"Dahlia, I asked Principal Myers who the president of drama club was— A pretty embarrassing thing to have to do, by the way, and I'm pretty sure I'm not getting a raise anytime soon—and he said Dahlia Jane Delilah Doe. Do you know any other Dahlia Jane Delilah Does?" She raised a brow.

"Well, I damn for sure wish I did!" I growled. "I did not sign up to be president of drama club! How could this happen?!"

"No idea," She said boredly standing up straight instead of leaning on her desk. "The fact of the matter is that you are president and that means that we've got a lot of crap to figure out. We have to get a play done before this month is over or else. We're gonna have an emergency club meeting tomorrow and...Well, anybody who's not in the club that still wants to come can definitely do so. I'll announce it over the intercom tomorrow during first period."

I let out a long sigh as I pinched the bridge of my nose and nodded.

"Oh, and Dahlia?" She called as I began to leave.

"Hmm?" I questioned tiredly.

"Mr. Tomlin mentioned wanting to see you after our meeting was done..." She gave me a sympathetic look as my eyes bulged.

"I am not the president of adventure club!"

"Or so you thought." She shrugged before waving me off.

***

After an exhausting first day back, I was in my room, laying down and trying to pretend that my life didn't suck ass. Mr. Tomlin said the same shit that Mrs. East said, except our little meeting was about adventure club. We've gotta do ten 'adventures' before school is over or else that club is gonna be scrapped before next year too.

I can't believe that this is how my last month of school is about to go. It's gonna be nothing but fucking stress. All I'm gonna get to do is go on 'adventures' and plan for some stupid play that's gonna turn out to be trash and...I'm not even gonna have the energy to study for my exams! Not that I usually do...But this year could've been different!

We'll never fucking know now.

I was just about to dial Billie's number, knowing that talking to her would make me feel better just as it always does, when Denny opened my door—without fucking knocking, as usual— and poked his head in. "Yo, my new friend is coming over. Try not to look like a nerd."

He slammed the door shut afterward and I rolled my eyes as I quickly stood up and ran to open it again. He was about to close his own room door before I caught him. "Bro, when are they gonna be here?! I look like trash!"

"I don't know, maybe in, like...Five?" He shrugged. "Just put a bag over your head. You'll look better."

Fucking bastard.

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A/N: ayyeee so nothing bad happened over spring break!!! I just wanted to write some fluff.